"Maybe I'm just speaking for myself here, but I can't remember a game where we played that bad defensively and gave up so many uncontested lay-ups and three-point shots," guard Anthony Parker said. Parker was not the only one feeling the defensive play may have been lacking.

"They shot 43 free throws against Chicago (on Wednesday) and we talked about getting up on guys, communicating on defense, keeping people in front of us and they just drove by us," Raps head coach Sam Mitchell said.

Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell said the appointment is primarily to ease Ford's return as much as possible.

"It gives T.J. an opportunity to continue to get better," Mitchell said. "It also gives him a comfort zone. John was with him when he first came back from that injury so we're just trying ot make sure we give TJ every opportunity possible to get his confidence up. (John) will come in periodically to monitor and make sure he is doing the things he needs to do because our training staff has no experience in dealing with that type of injury."

It got so out of hand defensively that Mitchell went to an all-point guard backcourt of Jose Calderon and T.J. Ford, not necessarily for the speed they could provide offensively but for their defensive skills. And seeing how neither is anything close to a lock-down defender, that was a huge gamble for Mitchell.

"We were trying to put some people in the game who had a chance to keep somebody in front of them, that was it," Mitchell said.

"We were just getting beat at almost every spot. It's tough when they swing the ball and at every spot they're beating you off the dribble. You come and help and then they hit a three.

Lucas's duties with the Raptors will be primarily to work with individual players in practices. He'll sit behind the bench rather than on it during games, joining Eric Hughes as a basketball development consultant.

The Raptors will play in Charlotte tomorrow. Bosh expects to be on the trip, but doesn't know whether he'll play. He said only he won't return until his knee is healed, though he was optimistic it won't be long.

"I don't think this is as serious as anything I've seen before," he said.